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Restless - Shifting, Vibrato, Dry-ish Hands and Everything
Dear CommunityI understand that there are quite some threads covering these aspects, but they seem not to bring all together for what I am looking for, so please forgive me when this is all so boring. And please, no restless wars, we‘re past that, right.
Here are my questions: you, who are at ease playing restless,
(1) in low positions, before you start reaching around the body of the violin, do you mainly hold the neck with two or three contact points? (two: thumb, likely on the pad, and the tip(s) of the fingers stopping the note(s); three: thumb, finger tip(s) and side of the index finger first knuckle)
(2) when you mainly use either two or three contact points in these lower positions, do you switch for/during shifting or vibrato? Is it mainly one set of contact points, or do switch very dynamically?
(3) In case you’re mainly using two contact points, and in case you have times of dry-ish hands, how do you prevent the neck from falling on (into? not a native speaker, apologies) the web between thumb and index finger? (Side note: tried many different hand cremes etc - they make my skin smooth - as advertised, and that‘s great, but they exactly don‘t provide that minute amount of „tackiness“ that sometimes makes all the difference.)
I think I want to understand if there is some sort of consensus here among the restless players, or if it’s all over the place and people find their way what works best for them. Any additional experience you feel worthwhile sharing is highly appreciated. Thank you so much!
Dominik Tweet
Replies (2)
2. Down to 2 for vibrato (index finger moves slightly away from neck)
3. Hard to explain, but the thumb bends somewhat under the neck. I do think you also hold it somewhat in place, except when you need to shift. A hand cream might make that harder to do!
Good luck!